mudguard:

 

 

 

The thing is, what metric do you base performance on? GDP? Immigration? I work in finance and a big part of it is reliant on the rural sector, but also in the leisure sector. I can tell you one thing, the leisure side absolutely exploded during the pandemic, the complete opposite of our normal convention was that when things get tight, the toys stop being bought.

 

We might see that now, but the stuff we deal with is so backlogged that there isn't the financial risk as there's no stock. 

 

And I certainly see a few echo chambers, from many who I interact with and assuming the rural community they're involved with, one might infer many farmers are pro National. And that's fine. But would adding all the farmers up nationwide equal a small town? So for all the noise one bloc might make, a single town voting the other way rules them out. 

 

That's where I get frustrated, friends who earn very good money thinking that it's the norm, and if you're earning over $60k it probably looks pretty good to someone in South Auckland/Dunedin etc. 

 

Sir Paul Callaghan (a Physicist) did a talk on the NZ economy and how NZs reliance on Primary Produce and Tourism will keep us poor as a nation.